A Cop's Best Friend

Our dog, a Maltese/Yorkshire terrier mix named Lana, knows one
trick: She sits on command. Sometimes this will get her a peanut, but it
does not really do anything for me.

When Aldo and Franky sit, by contrast, they accomplish something
important for their police handlers, signaling the presence of illegal
drugs and justifying searches that would otherwise be prohibited by the
Fourth Amendment.

Two cases the Supreme Court heard last week offer an opportunity
to impose long overdue restraints on this amazing ability to transform a
cop's hunch into probable cause, which is based on serious misconceptions
about the meaning of a police dog's "alert."

Aldo, a German shepherd, was riding with Officer Todd Wheetley of
the Liberty County, Fla., sheriff 's office on June 24, 2006, when
Wheetley pulled over a pickup truck driven by Clayton Harris because of an
expired tag. Harris seemed nervous to Wheetley, who later said he was
shaking, restless and breathing rapidly.

Wheetley asked for permission to search the truck, and Harris said
no. But thanks to Aldo and the Supreme Court, Wheetley did not have to
stop there. Seven years ago, the Court declared that "the use of a
well-trained narcotics-detection dog ... during a lawful traffic stop
generally does not implicate legitimate privacy interests." So Wheetley
was free to walk Aldo around the truck.

According to Wheetley, Aldo got excited and sat down in front of
the driver's side door handle, thereby allowing him to search the vehicle.
Wheetley did not find any substances that Aldo is trained to detect, but
he did find 200 pseudoephedrine tablets, along with other chemicals and
supplies used to make methamphetamine.

About two months later, Wheetley stopped Harris again, this time
ostensibly because of a malfunctioning brake light, and went through the
same ritual. According to Wheetley, Aldo alerted to the same door handle,
but once again there were no drugs in the vehicle.

Wheetley speculated that on both occasions, Aldo smelled traces of
meth transferred from Harris' hand, which might be true (although a smell
on the outside of a vehicle does not necessarily originate with its
owner). But perhaps Wheetley, keen to confirm his suspicions about Harris,
misinterpreted Aldo's behavior or subconsciously cued him to alert.